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The Buffalo News (New York)

ALBANY - A group composed of Toronto investors and rocker Jon Bon Jovi looking to purchase the Buffalo Bills insist that it is not looking at potential new stadium sites in Southern Ontario and that its plans are to keep the team in Western New York.

"It's the Buffalo Bills, and they will do everything they can to make that work there," said Andrew Bergmann, a Toronto engineer who is a stadium consultant for the group.

Group members besides Bon Jovi include Toronto Maple Leafs Sports & Entertainment chief Larry Tanenbaum and members of the family who own media and telecommunications giant Rogers Communications.

Bergmann said the group will sign the paperwork required by the Bills trust - due Tuesday - that any potential bidders must submit in order to stay in the purchase process, which will next include more in-depth financial go-rounds with the investment bank and lawyers involved in the team's sale.

Bergmann, who has known and worked with Tanenbaum for more than 30 years, said the group has only examined various design ideas for a new stadium, and has not yet been performing any site-selection work. He said he and others involved with the group's efforts will meet with two "prominent" Buffalo-area developers Wednesday to discuss sites they have in mind for a new stadium for the National Football League team. He declined to elaborate.

For months, sources have said the Toronto group was looking at a number of Southern Ontario sites, including one near Woodbine Racetrack in Toronto.

Bergmann - responding to media reports Thursday that the group was considering a new stadium in Toronto - said that talk of any sites is premature but insisted that the group is looking to either build a new stadium in the Buffalo area or possibly renovate the current 41-year-old stadium and keep the team in Orchard Park.

"We have been looking at engineering-type studies and preliminary designs for a stadium. We've been doing that for a while. We have no clue where we might build it. ... We've done no feasibility on any sites," Bergmann said in an interview with The Buffalo News.

"I don't think there would be anything else they'd be looking at right now," Bergmann said when asked whether the group will keep the team in Western New York. Bergmann is co-founder of Wessex Capital Partners in Toronto, an architecture, design and engineering firm.

He said the stadium configurations that the group has looked at range from an open, 15-acre stadium to a 25-acre version if a retractable roof is incorporated. The overall size would depend, he said, on whether a suburban or urban site is selected and the amount of parking required.

If a new stadium is planned, the consultant said, the Bon Jovi group would likely end up with a facility seating between 60,000 and 72,000 and costing at least $750 million.

QMI Agency, a Canadian news outlet, has reported that the group is looking to remain in the Buffalo area. It has also reported that Bon Jovi would be the controlling owner of the group if it emerges as the winning bidder for the team. The NFL permits groups to own a team, but one individual must own at least 30 percent of the syndicate's shares. Tanenbaum's interests include the National Hockey League's Toronto Maple Leafs and the National Basketball Association's Toronto Raptors.

A person with knowledge of the process said there have been more potential bidders for the Bills than what many insiders had expected.

In recent weeks, no new names have been added to the roster of those known to be interested, including Manhattan developer Donald J. Trump, former Sabres owner B. Thomas Golisano, and current Sabres owner Terry Pegula and his wife Kim.

Bergmann said the Bon Jovi and Toronto investors have been focused on the franchise bidding process alone.

"We're not even close to any feasibility study," he said of the stadium speculation. "I think people are hoping we are further along on a stadium site than what is reported in the media, but it's not the case."

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When the Minnesota Gophers' TCF Bank Stadium opened in 2009, it joined the growing list of collegiate and professional stadiums sporting synthetic turf. But this weekend, the stadium will be sporting a more natural look when it hosts a soccer matchup on Saturday featuring two of the most premier teams from Europe. Manchester City, champions of the English Premier League this past season, will face off against Olympiacos, winners of the Superleague Greece, as part of the the second annual Guinness International Champions Cup tournament.

Workers are busy installing sod over the existing synthetic turf, creating a playing surface more akin to what the players are accustomed to. "Because you end up running 7, 8 miles in a soccer match running on [synthetic] turf is not good for your legs," tournament spokesman Harrison Raboy said. "They play on grass, and that's the most natural playing surface for soccer."

University of Minnesota athletic department spokesman Dan Reisig noted the sod used is a bit thicker than what you normally might see in a backyard, and the process of installing the grass was, as Reisig called it, a "pretty significant effort." After the field is installed, it requires delicate care, including mowing the grass to the preferred length, putting patterns on it, and painting and watering it.

Despite the effort involved, the installation will not be a permanent fixture. The Premier League match will be followed by another featuring North America Soccer League members Minnesota United and Ottawa Fury, with tickets being valid for both contests. The stadium will return to its natural playing surface of synthetic turf on Monday, and some of the grass used for the match will be repurposed with the rest of it being recycled.

The tournament takes places in 13 cities and 12 stadiums in both the United States and Canada. TCF Bank will not be the only stadium hauling in natural grass and redoing its playing surface; Michigan Stadium is bringing in that same type of thickened sod to host Manchester United and Real Madrid. Steve Bush, owner of Bush Turf, said in an interview with Mlive.com's Michael Niziolek that the initial layer of sod is like "thick landscaping fabric" and once that is laid down, truckloads of sod are moved in. However, the difficulty with this is that Michigan Stadium only has one tunnel through which to shuttle the sod.

When you look at the grand scheme of turning the whole field around for an international soccer "friendly," there has to be some sort of validation for such a laboring process, and there certainly is in Michigan's case. When the game gets underway on Saturday afternoon, it is estimated to be one of the most-attended soccer matches ever, with the stadium holding over 109,000 spectators, which will greatly assist local businesses as well as Ann Arbor's economy. Not to mention, there could be some positive, residual effects for Detroit's economy, but there have been no projected gains yet.

The third and final synthetic-turf stadium among the 12 tournament hosts is California Memorial Stadium, home to the Cal Bears, which also changed its playing surface to grass when Real Madrid played Inter Milan on July 26.

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Mecklenburg (N.C.) County Park and Recreation takes a holistic approach to youth sports, using the power of sports as a vehicle to teach their participants life skills. Rather than just providing leagues for children, the department's programming focuses on character building, fitness, nutrition and health to help develop the whole child.

It has been a busy couple of years for the Glynn County (Ga.) Recreation and Parks Department. Since winning the Excellence in Youth Sports Award in 2010, the department has continued to build upon its child-focused programming and offer superior service to its citizens, which enabled it to earn the prestigious award again this year.

The road to excellence began five years ago for Fort Rucker (Ala.) Youth Sports and Fitness. Randy Tolison took over as youth sports and fitness director, bringing with him a fresh perspective to rejuvenate the program. "The program looked good from the outside, but it was a little stagnant on the inside," says Tolison. "The staff on board was doing okay, but it appeared that they were satisfied with just being okay."

Activities and programs at Botetourt County (Va.) Parks, Recreation and Tourism are developed around putting the children first. When new activities and options are added to the youth sports program, the impact on the youngsters served is always examined first.

For two weeks beginning one week from today, 10 days after judging wrapped up at the Intercontinental Hotel outside Chicago, the 10 winners of the 2012 Facility of Merit awards will be announced on the AB Newswire.